I have this giant stash busting garter stitch blanket that I’ve been working on (if you can call it that) for probably 15 or 20 years by now. I’m not sure it’s correct to say I’m working on it, because it usually only comes out in the winter when I’m not working on anything else and I want to use it as a blanket while I’m knitting it.
While you are here, check out this Knitted Patchwork Blanket from our sister site.
It’s made of strips of garter stitch, but I’m joining them together as I knit them (by knitting the edge stitch on my needle together with the edge stitch on the previous strip). It’s a satisfying and relatively mindless way to use up scraps, and my goal is that it will one day be 6 feet square (1.8 meters). Hopefully sometime in the next 15 or 20 years!
If you want to make a simple blanket but don’t want to have to lug around the whole thing as you work on it, the striped blanket from The Knitting Squirrel is a great option.
It, too, is made of odd balls and garter stitch, but this one is done in panels that aren’t joined until they are done. (And the way that’s done is pretty clever, too!) This one is done in sock yarn that was made into magic balls before knitting, but you could use whatever yarn you have a lot of and either make the panels narrower or make fewer of them, or just make your blanket whatever size works for you.
Read more about magic balls here if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
My version is worsted weight and alternates between panels of 12 and 24 stitches, so that’s also an option you could try to mix the colors up even more.
Check out the free pattern at The Knitting Squirrel for all the details.
[Photo: The Knitting Squirrel]
